Soak the fava beans together with the baking soda in plenty of water overnight.

The next day, peel and roughly chop the onion and potato, then roughly chop the carrot and celery sticks. Drain the fava beans, give them a rinse and add them to a large pan along with the chopped veg, bay leaf, tomato paste and water. Bring to a boil, then cover the pan with a lid and cook for 1 1/2 hours or until the fava beans are tender and the potatoes have disintegrated, stirring occasionally to avoid the starches sticking to the bottom of the pan. Also make sure you have plenty of space left in the pan, otherwise the liquid will rise and boil over. If the pan isn’t large enough, keep the lid ajar and top up the water when necessary.

In the meantime, make the lolli. Tip the flour onto a work surface and make a well in the middle. Add the salt and extra virgin olive oil to the well, then pour in about half of the water and begin to mix everything together into a rough dough, adding the rest of the water little by little as you go. Once it’s all come together, knead the dough for around 5 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. At this point, you can cover the dough with a bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes to let the gluten develop, which will make it easier to handle. But for this pasta shape you can also continue straightaway. When you’re ready, cut the dough into 1/2 cm slices and roll each slice into a 1 cm wide cords, similar to breadsticks (make sure to cover the dough you’re not handling with a towel to prevent it from drying out). Then use a knife to cut each cord into 5 cm pieces. Use your index, middle and ring finger to drag each piece of dough over the surface to make the lolli shape. Continue with the rest of the dough until all of the pasta is ready. You can keep the shaped pasta on a lightly floured baking tray until later.

At this point, the fava beans should have absorbed most of the water but still be just about covered. Season them with the salt and a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and cook for another 15 minutes to let the beans absorb the salt. In the meantime, bring a kettle of water to a boil. After the 15 minutes, add the lolli straight into the pan with the beans*, add enough boiling water from the kettle to generously cover them and cook them for around 10 minutes until they still have a pleasant chew, but no chalkiness in the centre. By now, the leftover liquid should have turned into a creamy sauce, but you can still remove any excess water if necessary.

*Tip: I usually only cook half of the pasta on the day and use the leftover fresh the next day. In that case, dust a baking tray with semolina flour, transfer half of the lolli onto the tray and leave them overnight.

When the pasta is ready, divide the lolli con fave over 4 plates and finish it with some chilli flakes and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.